live from the studio 7 i'm suzanne malveaux want to get you up to speed for this tuesday, january 3rd. this is it, iowa caucuses. maybe the most hyped night in politics, so what's a caucus? in its most basic form a caucus is a meeting. it's a chance to change minds. tonight concerned republicans in iowa will pull on their winter coats and hop in their cars and argue through the night to decide who will be the leader of our country. it's more than a popularity contest, it's democracy and it's about to get loud. we'll take you live to iowa before the caucuses kick off. the race is still up in the air and the campaigning is going down to the wire in iowa at this hour three of the candidates are taking part in a rock the caucus rally, targeting younger voters.

i want you to listen in here. i think we got michele bachmann, ron paul, rick santorum, all of them looking for the last-minute vote. let's listen in -- >> -- to do business if you're a job creator because of our tax code. i'm a tax lawyer. i want to abolish the tax code and do away with it and put it in its place a pro-growth code so that you can wildly succeed with your future and with your plan. i want a future for you. i want a hope for you. and we can do that if we open up the opportunities in the tax code. change our climate for doing business. and grow the economy. that's my goal for you. and what i want to do, too, is bring down the price of a gallon of gas. gasoline was $1.79 a gallon the day that barack obama became president. we can get it back to that again because the united states is the number one energy resource-rich nation in the world. and i want to open that up for

you. i'm so grateful you are here. this is your chance to succeed now for your state. go out tonight. rock the vote, take your country back. it's your opportunity. i believe in you. god bless you, you guys. go out and vote tonight. thank you, everybody. thanks for letting me be here. >> good luck today. >> all right. we are going to -- just listened to michele bachmann and we'll hear from ron paul and santorum as well in that rally, rock the caucus. ri all three went after president obama. >> he was going to get everyone back to work. he was going to repair the nation and repair the world. extraordinary promises. but there's a huge gap between the promise and the delivery. >> at the election level, i think i'm the only person who

can take on obama's billion dollar campaign and defeat him head to head in debates in a decisive way. >> this election is about stopping a president of the united states and his administration that is abusing the constitution of this country, that is putting america on a track to bankruptcy. and, folks, we are going to take america back. well, the other candidates are scrambling for votes in iowa, jon huntsman started his day campaigning in new hampshire, and new hampshire votes a week from today and huntsman decides to skip iowa, focus his efforts on new hampshire. at a school just the last hour he talked about his decision to run for office. >> i got the same lecture in life when i was growing up from my dad. you want to change the world, if you want to make it happen, you have to go into it. that's where you need to make change. but not everybody's up for that. you obviously need a fallback position. you can always go into politics.

>> huntsman's poll numbers in new hampshire have edged up recently, but he still hasn't broken into the top tier yet. well, fresh from his holiday vacation in hawaii president obama will be speaking in iowa tonight. kind of sort of, after a day of meetings in d.c. plans to speak to his supporters in iowa this evening as republican caucus vote comes in. how is he going to do it? the campaign official said the president will use a new video technology kind of like skype to chat with democrats about his own campaign. we are less than eight hours away from the start of the iowa caucuses, and the candidates, they are scrambling, you can imagine, to lock up the last-minute votes. three of them are going after the youth vote. it is a rock the caucus rally. it is in west des moines. our dana bash is there rocking it as well. dana, great to see you. this is a very exciting day. tell us a little bit about who you've seen there and why this is so important to them. >> reporter: this is a really

interesting event, because as you know you've been out here covering these caucuses, suzanne, caucusgoers tend to be older, very much older, and this is generally not the kind of demographic that gets out to the caucuses, so the fact that you have here at this rally where i am 800 students, juniors and seniors, many of whom are already 18, some of whom won't be 18 until election day, are learning for the first time about the caucuses. and i have somebody with me who is kind of a classic example of the kind of person, the kind of voter, that these candidates are going for. i have with me lenny abramson. >> how are you? >> reporter: how are you? you've never voted in a caucus tonight, have you? >> no, i have not. >> reporter: who are you going to vote for? >> i'm expecting a lot of, like, different opinions and a lot of exciting and a lot of intense decision making, this is my first time ever being to a caucus. >> reporter: so, you're undecided. what exactly are you looking for? what do you want to hear from

the candidates here and tonight from the representatives that will hopefully make your mind up? >> i'd like to hear a lot about their economic policies and things they can do for colleges and making that affordable and job opportunities to improve the economy both here and at the iowa caucus. >> reporter: are you leaning one way or the other? i >> i'm really undecided but i think tonight will make it happen. >> reporter: where are you gotten your information about the candidates? >> newspapers and the internet and other than that just rumors. >> reporter: rumors? >> a lot of people are talking about different people's policies and what they like about people and what they don't like about people. >> reporter: what do you think is so important about people, you're 17 right now, but you'll be 18 on election day, why do you think it's important for you to get out in public? >> i think we need to agree with what's going on for later in life, we are if the ut and we're going to have the jobs and we'll be making the ideas and that's why we need to be able to get our voices heard. >> reporter: one last thing,

suzanne, i wanted to show this to you and our viewers as well. if you can hold it up. this is what the students are getting here today. it's a pledge to vote, which is done by rock the vote, and second most important the voter registration form. every one of these students that are coming here today, it's not just this event, it's 25 others around the state of iowa, are getting this registration form and i assume that's what you'll fill out to take tonight. thank you so much for joining us. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> reporter: and good luck. you're introducing rick santorum? >> yes, i am. >> reporter: we'll see if he changes your mind. we'll talk to you afterwards. >> thank you. >> reporter: that's what we're seeing and hearing here, and, again, it's interesting this is the kind of demographic that the candidates some of them at least on their last day, the day, caucus day, are trying to get because young voters are not exactly those who tend to go out to the caucuses. >> dana, i think only in iowa, like, a rumor that there's going to be politicians everywhere, right? fighting for your vote. it's just kind of amazing when you think of all the events

taking place. >> reporter: yeah. >> what is the weather like, dana? you and i spent a lot of time out there. it was 20 degrees below zero when those folks have to come out. is it any warmer this go-round? >> reporter: it is. it is warmer. it's not warm. but it's much warmer than it was when you and i were here standing on sheets of ice trying not to slip and fall when we were talking on television. but, yeah, no, the skies are blue and so in general weather should not be a factor for caucusgoers at all. >> i like that, dana. it's warmer but not warm. that pretty much summarizes it. dana, thanks so much. have a great evening. >> reporter: thank you. welered fr heard from the a and the pundits, but we want to hear from you. who do you think will win the iowa caucuses and why? people in iowa are actually weighing in on who they like. >> i could take some qualities from each one of them and get one candidate we would have a super candidate. >> so, you're kind of disappointed a little bit in the candidates.

>> i wouldn't say disappointed, but i'm just saying that someone has a very good idea. >> reporter: who will you support? >> huntsman, because after all the politics i've been hit with, i went back to where i started and looking at the candidates' record and how they will govern. and her record is great. >> who do you think will come out on top? looking at the responses to my facebook page at facebook.com/suzannecnn. and the country's first vote in the presidential race the true test takes place in the iowa caucuses. watch what happens from all sides live, "america's choice 2012" coverage of the iowa caucuses begins tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern. so we've got a lot more out of the coverage of iowa covering all the angles. in a few minutes, what happens during a caucus? it is a caucus 101. then analysis, what happens once the dust settles.

in about ten minutes, well, who if anyone, will get herman cain's endorsement? yep. and later we'll gauge enthusiasm in iowa as the clock ticks down to caucus time. all week we're breaking down where the candidates stand on the issues. that is 11:40 eastern today. we'll tackle abortion. [ male announcer ] feeling like a shadow of your former self? c'mon, michael! get in the game! [ male announcer ] don't have the hops for hoops with your buddies? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older.

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it's one of the most fascinating and confusing admittedly nights in american politics, it is the iowa caucuses. we call it a meeting of the minds and an indicator of who is actually running hot, who's not in the race to the white house, so how does it all work?

tom foreman has the breakdown. >> reporter: when the democrats do it, there's debate, horse-trading, a real raucous caucus. but the republican caucuses all around the state are much more low key. step one, show up. any voter can take part as long as he or she is already a registered republican or willing to become one at the door. step two, listen up. after the pledge of allegiance cauc caucusgoers hear speeches from people representing the candidates. they can be from in state or out, big names or small town folks. they make a quick pitch for their pick. step three, mark it up. pieces of paper are passed out. attendees write down a candidate's name and the ballots are corrected. it is more or less a secret vote depending on the formality of that caucus site. and step four, count them up. the votes are added and a winner is declared.

that's about it. delegates to the national convention will be chosen later and they're not bound to the results of the caucus, so it's really more like a high-powered poll, and yet many political analysts say it really does matter. because candidates who finish at or near the top are often given credit for having stronger organizations, more solid core support, and better chances of winning in other states down the line. tom foreman, cnn, washington. talking about the caucuses how they work, we want to focus on the candidates and how they're doing. joining us to take a look at how the race is shaping up senior political analyst david gergen, good to see you in person. >> good to see you here in atlanta. >> yeah, nice to have you here. >> perfect. >> watching this race now, who looks like they're the head of the pack? >> well, i think most of the analysts give the advantage to romney, but that is a danger for him actually, because he's only spent about three weeks in iowa

and santorum, for example, has spent maybe, oh, 14 weeks in iowa over the last year. so what it means is romney almost has to win it. if he doesn't win it, he won't live up to his expectations and the expectations game is really what governs a lot of the interpretation afterwards. >> rick santorum has really dramatically risen, but just in the last three weeks or so. is it a flash in the pan? >> if you're going to flash, he's picked the right time. this is the most remarkably fluid campaign we've had, we've had six different candidates since last summer who at one time or another have been at the top of the polls in iowa and the only person who hasn't been at the top of the polls is rick santorum and he presents the biggest threat because of his late surge. can he make it or not? i don't think anybody knows. i think it's hugely unpredictable. he was within one point last night in the polling of "the des moines register" and the

last-minute surge usually produces volt, b s votes, but w know. and so many people haven't made up their minds. >> which i don't understand. >> we didn't have enough debates. >> yeah, the debates. what about newt gingrich, if he doesn't do well tonight? is that basically the end of the run for him? >> no, he'll go on and make his last stand in south carolina. but i think what we do see is a very angry newt gingrich. he told me a tfew weeks ago he would be vetted by the media, but i don't think he expected the onslaught of negative ads especialliby mitt romney. >> is that a lesson to the republicans, this is the republican playbook if you have all the negative ads obviously the democrats are going to have to match them in the general election. >> i think we're heading to a mean general election. one of the things we learned from mitt romney, he's very focused on the stump but he plays a ruthless game. he will take you out if he has to and he's done it very effectively and by the way,

barack obama plays the same game. >> oh, absolutely. >> so, we may well have two very tough competitors come the fall. >> and there's a lot of money obviously the white house, the obama campaign, has a lot of money that they can work with here to tap into. one of the things that we might see tonight which is really fascinating is that romney might actually win in iowa. with less than the vote than he lost to huckbee in the last caucus, right? how does he manage to coalesce the other republicans around his candidacy for the general election because they are only talking about, like, 25% potentially voting for him? >> he got 25% last time. he could win this with 24%, you're absolutely right. what i do think if you get that small even if you win, it encourages the other conservative to hang in there to see if they can find somebody can catch fire against him. because clearly there's an opening when you have 75% of the people voting for somebody else. but from romney's point of view

the best thing to happen would be everybody decides to stay in, nobody decides to get out, bach milwauk bachmann goes to south carolina, and santorum goes to south carolina and the best thing to do for romney is divide and conquer, if you keep the things spread out, if there's no one single anti-romney candidate, he wins. >> we might see it go on for quite some time. >> we will. i hope you'll be there everywhere along the way. >> i will be. >> it's great to be here. you look great. >> it's a lot of fun. good to see you. remember, herman cain, former republican candidate, onetime front runner? well, he hasn't backed a candidate since dropping out in december, but last night he told piers morgan he's planning to make what he calls an unconventional endorsement. i want you to listen to this -- >> my endorsement is going to come later and it's going to be an unconventional endorsement for the following reason --

i was very fortunate to have a large base of supporters, and my number one mission isn't to help select the nominee. my number one mission is to defeat barack obama. and in order to do that, i want to leave my voice and myself in a position to keep my supporters and other supporters that we may pick up when we announce this national movement. >> so, cain didn't really elaborate on what this national movement initiative actually involved. well, live "america's choice 2012" coverage of the iowa caucuses begins tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern. most have made up their minds many voters in iowa say they can still be persuaded to change their positions, so why are so many iowans not firmly behind a candidate just hours before the voting begins? find out.

you might be old enough to remember rock the vote, i certainly do. get ready to rock the caucuses, that's what we're looking at right now. this is west des moines, iowa. it is really an event about getting young people involved in the caucus process as well as the 2012 election. we're waiting to see who is actually going to take the podium. it's in a gymnasium there, a lot of young people who have never participated in this are actually going to be there, and

they're waiting for some pretty heavy hitters. we're talking about a lot of the candidates, michele bachmann, ron paul, and rick santorum, and romney's sons are gathering as well, they'll speak on behalf of their father, mitt romney. as soon as it happens, we'll get you there live. we want to get you up to speed to the latest issues. hundreds of condolences have poured in for park ranger margaret anderson from mt. rainier, she's a mother of two and she was shoate on new year's date and she later died. the suspect 24-year-old benjamin barnes was found dead yesterday, his body was found face down in a river in a park and wearing only t-shirts, jeans, and a tennis shoe. the l.a. arson spree that appears to be over. it was a part-timeshare riff's deputy who actually arrested the suspect, 24-year-old harry burkhart has been charged with

one count of arson. and the mayor says more charges probably going to be filed against him as well, and the man who caught this guy, well, that's a whole another story. our thelma gutierrez is in los angeles with more on that part of the story as well as the suspect. thelma, first of all, tell us about this deputy, the guy who actually caught him. >> well, suzanne, the part-timeshapart-tim part-time sheriff's deputy is 30-year-old shervin lalezary was on patrol monday morning when he saw a suspect driving the van that matched the description of a man leaving the arson fire. he pulled the van over and with the help of los angeles police arrested the suspect. >> thank you to the men and women of the l.a. county sheriff's department west hollywood station for coming in to work doing this full time, putting their lives on the line every day full time. i really appreciate everything you guys do and i look forward to coming back for my next shift

with you guys. >> now, suzanne, the suspect is a 24-year-old, his name is harry burkhart. he lives in hollywood with his mother and los angeles police say they believe that burkhart is a foreign national from germany and, though, at this point he's only been charged with one count of arson, he's suspected of starting 52 fires, mainly in parked cars, and, suzanne, one law enforcement official told the local radio station that burkhart was dropping small cubes. the small cubes used to start chor coal fire oscars and giving him just a few minutes to escape and investigators also say that they're not ruling out that other people may be involved as well. >> thelma, do we have any sense of the motive, why he was doing his thing? do investigators have any ideas? >> well, of course, all of that is under investigation. he's being held right now without bail, but burkhart may have been upset over his mother's immigration problems.

she faces deportation from the united states, and following his arrest, he told investigators, quote, i hate america. that's according to several cnn affiliates, suzanne. >> all right, thelma, thank you. afghan officials say that they are ready to send a tortured girl abroad for medical care. they let their doctors decide if she should be treated in india. she was rescued by police last week after being locked in the basement of her in-laws' house, tortured for several months. now, authorities say her nails had been pulled out and denied food. this because she refused to be forced into prostitution. the girl's in-laws have been arrested, but her 30-year-old husband is still on the run. in egypt, prosecutors today began presenting their case in the trial of deposed hosni mubarak, he's said to be suffering from cancer and a heart ailment. he was wheeled into the

courtroom on a jugurney, he's accused of ordering protesters killed during last year's uprising. amnesty international reports that 840 people died. a lawyer involved in the trial says he expects a verdict before the january 25th anniversary of the start of the revolution. decision day for iowa voters. a lot of them say they could be persuaded still to change their minds. we're going to ask some political insiders what voters need to hear. [ slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums 8% every 10 years.age 40, we can start losing muscle -- wow. wow. but you can help fight muscle loss with exercise and ensure muscle health. i've got revigor. what's revigor? it's the amino acid metabolite, hmb to help rebuild muscle and strength naturally lost over time.

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here's the stories we're working on next. bracing for a cliffhanger. caucus day in iowa. i'll talk to the political editor for "the des moines

register" why so many voters are still now undecided. plus, staying focused on the issues that matter to you most. we'll look at exactly where the candidates stand on abortion. we'll also take you live to des moines for caucus flavor. find out what the mood is like right now hours before the caucuses begin. you've seen the polls. you've heard of the politicking. but the madness of early voting season, it is kind of easy to lose sight of where the candidates really stand on the issues that matter to you most. well, today, we're focusing on abortion rights. it's actually one of the few issues the republican candidates are united on. all of them say they're anti-abortion. and all except for jon huntsman and mitt romney have signed an anti-abortion pledge. now, the pledge is a promise to appoint only anti-abortion officials and to block federal funding for abortion-related institutions. here's how the candidates stack

up individually. michellee bachmann opposes it i all cases. and ron paul, a doctor who proudly claims to have delivered 4,000 babies is strongly against abortion. on his campaign website he says i never performed an abortion and i never once found an abortion necessary to save the life of a mother. before becoming the governor of massachusetts mitt romney actually supported abortion rights. he later changed his position, but he sels tays the anti-abort pledge was too broad for him to sign. 's the governor of utah, jon huntsman signed laws limiting abortion rights but huntsman says he refuses to sign any pledge on principle. rick perry also strongly anti-abortion, even in cases ci. rick santorum wrote the legislation that banned the late-term procedure opponents

called partial birth abortion back in 2003. newt gingrich strictly anti-abortion and is in favor of ending financing for planned parenthood. stick around for the next hour of "newsroom." we'll take a hard look at how the candidates plan to deal with iran. and watch what happens tonight from all sides live "america choice 2012" coverage of the iowa caucuses begins tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern. i like helping people save. time, hassle,

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candidates have had their say, now the people of iowa they can have theirs. polls suggest a lot of iowans, however, could still be persuaded to change their minds heading into today's caucuses. joining us is carol hunter, he's politics editor of "the des moines register" and first of all on your paper's website today, you describe this race as a cliffhanger, with the top candidates in a dead heat. why? this drives me crazy covering the iowa caucuses for so many years. why are people so -- haven't decided quite yet, able to change their minds? >> i think the people of iowa really do take this so seriously, and so they want to make sure they get this right. i think there's even an anticipated, highly anticipated sense this year in particular

because republicans are really united about a desire to defeat president barack obama in november, so they want to make sure that they are focusing in on the candidate that can do that, and also reflects their values. >> sure. and, carol, the latest polls showing that up to 40% of iowans perhaps can still be persuaded to go in a different direction in terms of who they vote for. what do you think they want to hear from the candidates? what are they waiting for? what do they need to hear before they make up their minds? >> well, all along they have told us that they're very focused on the economy. just as americans are across the rest of the country. but iowans, too, many of them are evangelicals. they're waiting to hear -- to be absolutely convinced that that candidate will uphold their values on issues like abortion and gay marriage as well. they're very concerned about government debt. i think that's why ron paul's message has so resonated this year. >> and, carol, this is a very

unique group of people and that you're talking about. these are folks that got to brave the cold. they got to drive to these caucus meetings. they gather at 8:00. they got to listen to all the speeches, right, people making their case for the candidates, and then finally they vote at the end of the evening. i imagine they are pretty highly motivated. who are these folks? >> well, they are the party activists. there are some candidates i think who have expanded the pool this time around. i think ron paul is drawing in some young people, perhaps some disaffected independents and even obama voters last time around. but it tends to be people who are kind of political junkies who would get in to something like this. but that fact that you have to show up on a cold night at an exact place and exact time is one of the things that makes it so volatile, and also the fact that it is a neighborhood meeting. you're there with your peers. there's a lot of discussion. so, peer pressure can come in to

play and that can be what can kind of tips the edge. >> yeah, it's a pretty bizarre process when you think about it, but it's a very democratic one. carol, you and i have debated before about this, every four years, whether iowa should have that much influence in shaping the presidential race. you're talking about a state that's not really representative of the rest of the country. it's overwhelmingly rural, it's white. what do we make of the role that iowa plays? i mean, should it play such a major role in picking our next president? >> i think one of the best things that iowa has going for it is that it forces the candidates to take retail politics, it forces people to go out and look voters in the eye, shake their hands, make their pitches at coffee shops and fire halls and church meetings and that sort of thing. if you went to primary system, say, or started off with one of the bigger states, it would

basically be a television ad war. i think this is a way for people up close to really vet the candidates. and iowans take that process very seriously. >> all right, well, carol hunter, it's great to see you. obviously it's a fun thing to cover. it's a very interesting thing to watch, how this all unfolds and how this works, so obviously we're going to be paying very close attention tonight, and we'll see how it all turns out tomorrow. carol, thanks again. so, why are some republican candidates skipping, actually skipping, iowa and going on to new hampshire? next primary state. rather skipping new hampshire and going straight to south carolina. we'll tell you in just a couple minutes. man: my eltrill s king ban this team of guinea pigs to ty bo so to save some y, d

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republican candidates are racing the clock right now hoping to win the first contest on the presidential race calendar. cnn political editor paul steinhauser in des moines, in the polls, what's the mood, paul? are people feeling like it's getting close? >> yeah, down to the wire here. we just have about eight hours to go now until the big caucuses. you know, everything is so tight here, all these latest polls indicate that, well, mitt romney's on top, but ron paul, the congressman from texas a couple points behind, rick santorum, the former senator from pennsylvania and even gingrich and perry, other than bachmann who is in single digits, it's up in the air, and i would defy anybody to tell me

for sure who would come out on top in the caucuses. >> we're not taking any $10,000 bets on that, are we paul? we'll pass on that. what about turnouts? do we think folks will come out there? i know it's cold but not as cold as in previous years. but it looks nice, yeah? >> yeah. you know about cold, suzanne, when you were here four years ago, it was a bitter winter. it's not bad, it's in the mid-30s, and by caucus time tonight, low 30s, they are used to it here, it's almost like spring. what does that weather mean? it means, well, maybe it could help candidates whose supporters are maybe not that enthusiastic, maybe like mitt romney, if there's five feet of snow on the ground here, ron paul supporters would still come out. 118,000 that's how many republicans took part in the caucuses last time around. 118,000, nearly 119,000 four years ago. let's look to see if that number goes up and that may indicate

enthusiasm by republicans if they want to, of course, try to get president barack obama out of the white house next november, suzanne. >> let's talk about warmer weather, there are some candidates who are planning to skip new hampshire which is the home of the next primary to campaign in warmer weather, south carolina. why that strategy? >> a couple reasons. first of all, you look at all the polls in new hampshire and mitt romney used to be governor of neighboring massachusetts, he's the overwhelmingly front-runner in new hampshire. also the electorate there is very different than here in iowa. here in iowa, social conser conservatives dominate as well as independents, and south carolina, much closer to iowa. so, we know for sure rick perry, the texas governor, he's heading straight to south carolina. michaele bachmann if she marches on she's going to south carolina as well, and rick perry will spend a day or two in south carolina and the same thing for mitt romney his going down to

south carolina later this week. but they go to new hampshire this weekend and, of course, they'll be here a week from today for the primary. >> and we know republican caucus votes will come in tonight. the white house is not ignoring this. president obama will be speaking to a few thousand supporters in iowa through kind of an online video chat from washington. clearly this is a very different picture than what we saw before. he doesn't have to go out there. he doesn't have to do the retail politicking that we saw four years ago but it does seem like they're engaged now. >> well, they are definitely engaged. you're absolutely right. he's not going to face any serious challenge for the nomination but there will be caucuses and primaries, of course, but iowa, a very important battleground state. president obama did win it four years ago, he would like to hold on to it. that's why i think you'll see, of course, what he's doing tonight this teleconference, you'll see and hear a bunch of times i would assume in the spring, summer, and fall, suzanne? >> all right, try to stay warm there, paul, and we'll be watching, we'll be watching every move, thank you. we want to bring in dana, dana bash, she's in west des

moines, where they're holding a rock the vote-style event and, da dana, i understand you have very important guests with you, yes? >> reporter: yes, we're doing this on the fly. we do have important guests, interesting guests in general but because of where we are. we have four out of the five sons of mitt and ann romney, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you, dana. >> reporter: i wanted to say at the beginning we are waiting for one of his father's prime opponents rick santorum to take the stage, and when he does, i'll toss back to you, but before he does, we'll speak. i want to talk to you about the news of the day, newt gingrich called your dad a flat-outlier. what do you think about that? >> we're running in to a lot of great candidates running for president in their own way, but we're here to talk about my dad and why we think he's the best candidate for the president of the united states. >> reporter: anyone else? >> josh said it pretty well. >> reporter: i mean to hear, especially, look, this is not easy on any family member because you didn't ask for this, because you're not the

candidate, but as a son to hear somebody call your dad a liar, it can't be fun. >> you get thick skin throughout this whole process, and we know what our dad's all about. we love him. we know he's a man of integrity. he's a great example as a father for us, so it really doesn't -- we don't take it personally. >> reporter: you'll be kind to wait, i'll toss it back to you, suzanne, because rick santorum is speaking and we want to listen in. >> let's listen in to rick santorum. >> i'm excited to be here with some friends and some family. my friend is matt schultz who is the secretary of state for the state of iowa. and matt has been a good, dear friend and a great adviser for me over the past few months not just few weeks and, of course, my family. who karen and i have been married for 21 years and we've been blessed to raise seven children. and six of the seven are here with you today. our littlest one who is 3 1/2 is

not with us here, and we're excited to be with you, the head of the household and the rock that's been able to allow me to be at 380 town hall meetings in the state of iowa over the mast year is my wife karen, i want to introduce you to them and thank you for welcoming us here to valley high school. i know that this is a big moment. all of you are going to have an opportunity to be able to vote in the caucuses tonight. and obviously i encourage you to do so. this is an important moment for our country. we're at a critical path. every generation, every generation of leaders has an obligation to be able to pass on to the next generation something greater. i was very fortunate. we -- i was raised in a family that was an immigrant family. my father and my grandfather were immigrants to this country. my dad came when he was all of 7 years of age. and it was instilled in me the greatness of our country. the foundational freedoms. my grandfather left -- in fact,

he left my father and the rest of the family behind when in 1925 during mussolini's reign in italy leading up to world war ii and he was not a fascism and mussolini but he came to this country because he wanted to live in a country that believed in him, that believed in free people, that believed in opportunity, that any person could rise in society if they worked hard, got a good education, and played by the rules. that's what america always stood for, that bottom-up, entrepreneurial individual spirit based upon strong family that molded and instilled values that were important for you to be successful like hard work and honesty and ingregty. that is the real greatness of america. i would make the argument that there's a lot of people in america today and unfortunately in the white house that don't believe that anymore, who don't believe that america is a great

country because we are great, because we have great people, who build great things from the bottom up, but that america could be better if we built things from the america could b we built things from the top down. that may be the way other countries have done it. in fact, it is. a lot of people in this country left those countries because like my grandfather they wanted a country that believed in him. he didn't get that kind of education. he was a coal miner. ended up working in the coal mines until he was 72 years old. he believed if he could do his park, make the sacrifices that were necessary, that maybe some day his son would be able and daughter would be able to go to college some day, which fortunately they were able to do. and now here his grandson is standing and running for president of the united states. that is a great country because we believe in free people and the ability to build something from the bottom up. you have a very tough choice to

make. there are a lot of great candidates who are going to be up and many of them have spoken already. but you need to focus in on who was that candidate that has the vision for america, that's going to believe in the founding principles of our country and build this country. well, like our founders did and believing in those freedoms that i've described. i've always worked and talked to young people for all throughout my congressional career. i was elected in the senate as the youngest united states senator by far, i was 36 years old. i think the next youngest was 20 years older than i was. i was the second youngest when he was elected to the house. i took a special responsibility to go out and meet with young people. i met with every high school group that ever came to visit me in washington, d.c. because i wanted to remind them of basic things. number one -- okay, number two, i'll move along.

number one and people would come and say they want their picture with me, would you sign this and it was great. it was wonderful people were that respectful but i always reminded young people, i work for you, not the other way around. you have to hold your representatives accountable and your president accountable. you may like them. they may be nice people but you need to hold them act bl for what they do and policies they are putting forward. that means you have to be involved as citizens. you've got to read those blogs and read the news wires and have an understanding of what's going on in this country. every decision that's going to be made here in the next few years, whether obama dare is repealed or kept in place or this deficit that is crushing the economy and will crush your pocketbooks in the future will be dealt with so you won't have a lower standard of living, those are are the issues. you need to hold the

presidential candidates, members of congress accountable. because it's your future. i know you're worried about your education, you're worried about the job you're going to get. those are shorlt-term worries. the longer term problems are the ones that will affect you more pro foundly. hold those candidates to the standard of solving the intractable problems of an exploding federal government and debt that will crush your economic future. make sure they stands up and deal with the systemic problems of entitlements and deal with the systemic problems of a government that is doing more and more and giving you less and less freedom. that's what i would challenge you. take a look, there are different ways of solving these problems. barack obama has one way and i have another. look at them and make sure they are real. make sure that you can see how we can accomplish this vision of getting this economy going, not just in the short term stimulus but for long term stable growth

so you and your family can live free and prosper in a safe country. ladies and gentlemen, i thank you so much for your interest in being here today. i thank rock the vote for what they are doing and wish you much success in your first vote at the caucus. thank you and god bless you. [ applause ] >> you're watching rick santorum, rock the caucus at valley high school where numerous candidates will be speaking before young people, caucus voters and caucus goers throughout the day and evening. coming up after a quick break, we're going to hear from mitt romney's sons. dana bash has four of the five sons with her and we'll ask a couple of questions after the break. uh-oh. [ male announcer ] when diarrhea hits, kaopectate stops it fast. powerful liquid relief speeds to the source. fast. [ male announcer ] stop the uh-oh fast with kaopectate.

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dana bash where they are holding a rock the vote style event, rock the caucuses, i guess. i believe you have mitt romney's

sons, four of the five back with you. >> reporter: that's correct. >> this go around we've seen a lot more of them than the last time. obviously to make their father more relatable to folks in iowa. tell us something we don't know about your dad. >> reporter: that's a very good question. suzanne is asking about the fact you all seem to have a much more visible presence on the campaign trail to make your father more relatable. she wants each of you to tell us something we don't know about mitt romney. >> he's a prankster, loves to pull prankz on the kids. we grew up scaring each other and playing pranks, a fun -- loves a good joke and good laugh. >> he's extremely cheap, believe it or not. growing up, if i left the water on too long or left the fridge on too long, he would be barking at you. he's really frugal. >> has a very tender side, he talks about his parents things that are important to his faith

or country he can get emotional. >> tough to be last. they stole mine. he loves spending time with the grandkids, spend time with family and grandkids and relax. >> let me ask you. i was here with you spending a lot of time with your dad and with the campaign four years ago. obviously he finished a disappointing second after spending $10 million here. why do you think it's different this time around? >> there's a lot of enthusiasm for him right now. a lot of people -- the events we've been going to, a lot of excitement. we're still hoping for a great finish here, not expected a win but to have a great finish. >> i also think the most important issue right now is the economy. and there's no question if you look at the candidates on the stage, my dad is best equipped to help fix the economy and his message is resonating with people. as they get to know him he's rising in the polls and his message of getting barack obama out of the white house and getting someone that knows how to run the economy and fix

things is resonating with people. >> there's been a lot of talk about the ads that have been running constantly here on pt air waves. ads specificallydown by done by friends of your dad, financeeres of your dad with the super pack supporting him that mostly attacked newt gingrich. there's been controversy about the fact that he's supporting -- they are supporting him but not coordinating. but they are pretty tough. what do you think about that, particularly as sons of his and people watching, the shoe could be on the foot. >> we don't get into too much of the political punditry. we focus on my dad and his experience as a business guy and governor and we focus on that stuff and don't get into the details. you guys are the ones to speak on that. >> we know there are going to be a lot of tough ads, anything that we hear said, we know who he is, he's a great man of integrity and great father and

leader. we know we have to have thick skin. >> and politics is a tough sport. you have to be willing to take the heat. we know there's going to be a lot of negative ads coming from the democrats in the general election and you have to be able to withstand those things. >> your dad made a bold prediction last night which defies politics 101, he said he's going to win this thing. >> win the nomination is what he's talking about we're hopeful that that will be the case. >> reporter: thank you all, all four of you, really appreciate you spending time and have fun and good luck tonight. we think ron paul, one of your father's other prime competitors is about speak. >> it was interesting to talk to these four. four years ago we talked behind the scenes but not so much before the camera. it is different. >> right, they are out front and center for their dad. let's listen in to ron paul, one

of his fierce competitors taking the podium. >> the endorsement a couple of weeks ago and something happened because i had to admit i didn't know a whole lot about her. i do know our supporters were so enthusiastic about it they went up and bumped up her sales of her records by 600%. so it is a great pleasure to be here to talk to young people because our campaign has been known to being a great appeal to the young people. a lot of times people ask me that, i don't know the exact reason for it. for one thing i do talk to a lot of people and ask why are you enthusiastic about the campaign. one of the most common answers that i get is that i endorse the constitution and defend the constitution constantly in washington and that's very appealing to young people. [ applause ] also, young people like individuals who will stick to

principles. and in washington sometimes the two parties mesh together and there's not too many times that -- not too infrequent that i am -- i feel obligated to vote by myself, which means that i'm sticking to that principle and when they see that, they say that he won't go back and forth but he'll always stick to principle. but there are some other issues that are very important to young people that i find they recite to me when i talk to them. one thing is that it seems like it's inherent in young people that we have a government and have a president is very cautious about going to war. there's no reason in the world that we cannot be strict constitutionalists, strong national defense and say that we should not send young people off to war unless it's absolutely necessary and necessary for national security in a declaration of war is made, make the declaration, fight the war and win it and get it over and

come home. [ applause ] in the last ten years, we have been fighting endless wars in the middle east. we're 135 countries, we have 900 bases around the world and we're flat out broke. and the country knows it and the world knows it that we're in a financial crisis and that's what you're inheriting. in the last ten years, yours and my national debt has gone up $4 trillion because of those xpepd tours. now, if we thought it was necessary to fight the wars for national defense, that would be worth considering, but it really isn't. some of these wars are fought for who knows what reasons. we go in and sometimes we don't even go in with permission of the congress. this president currently has gone into countries by getting permission from the united nations and nato. he should only get permission in the american people through a

vote of the congress. [ applause ] another issue that young people bring to my attention when i ask why they are interested in what i'm doing, i emphasize very much the nature of money. money is a very important issue because if you can destroy the money, you can destroy the economy and that's what we have been doing. the founders knew something about that -- the founders understood something about this because we had runaway inflation at the beginning of our -- at the constitutional convention, by that time. so they said in the constitution that only gold and silver could be legal tender, there shouldn't be a central bank and shouldn't be a federal reserve system and you're not allowed to print money. for over 100 years we have rejected that note and print the money. the value of the money goes down and your prices go up. if you're thinking about college, all you have to do is

look back over the last 10 or 20 years and the cost of education has skyrocketed. that isn't because education cost goes up, it's because of the value of the money that's goes down. young people know this and they are studying and looking at economics and looking at the federal reserve system because it is the business cycle that can be explained by understanding monetary policy and the federal reserve. economic liberty is very important. you come to the conclusion that economic liberty is important because individual liberty is important. in our founding jefferson stated very clearly. our lives are gifts from our god. and therefore your income, the fruits of your labor should be yours and not the government's to spend. [ applause ] >> so we were given a country and it was a great country and great prosperity, the largest middle class in the world.

but today we have drifted from that because we're living off debt. we do too much overseas and run a welfare state here at home. that is coming to an end. that is what the society is telling us today because of the financial crisis. but if you understand one issue, you can understand foreign policy. you can understand economic policy. if you understand the principle of individual liberty. the purpose of the constitution is to restrain the federal government not to restrain you as an individual. [ applause ] personal liberty means a lot. personal liberty, if you understand it means you have a right to your life and right to your fruits of your labor. you both have economic and social liberty. as long as one does not hurt another individual, you can run your life as you so choose but you have to be responsible. the founders of this country warned us, they gave us a republic and it won't work

unless we are a moral society and assume responsibility for ourselves. this is where i think we have failed for a couple of generations, we have failed because we have said the government can take care of us and they never wanted to ask the question, who's the government? the government is us. and now we don't have the jobs. we don't have the income. we don't have the prosperity. we've had 30 million new people in our country over the last ten years and no new jobs. so this is what you're facing. this is why the debt is $1.5 trillion every year. we owe $15 trillion in our national debt. we owe $3 trillion to foreigners. the biggest debt in the history of the world. this is why we have to look for a change. and the change is not complicated. the change is just restoring what was -- those principles that made america great. that is understanding what liberty is, what it means to mind our own business overseas and let the people live their lives as they so choose and let

the economy work without the government regulating the economy. we had the prosperity but now the middle class, as it shrinks, guess what, the lobbyists run washington. the rich get bailed out and rich corporations and banks when the crisis hit four years ago they got the bailouts and all of the bad debt got bought up by the federal reserve and by treasury. and it was dumped on the people. and that debt put on the people means the economy can't recover until we dissolve that problem. but we can find our answers in the constitution. we can find that answer in the principles of liberty. and with the great experiment that we have and great success in the last 100 years it's been challenged. your challenge will be, you want to live in a free society, are you going to think about the materialism of a free society? no. you have to think about the principles of liberty. if you have a free society and

property rights and sound money, believe me, the prosperity will come. if you concentrating on the materialism and redistribution of wealth and influence of special interest, believe me, we can't get out of this mess. you have to have an understanding of belief and conviction of what true liberty is all about. it was a grand experiment, the best experiment in the history of the world. most of the world has lived under tyranny. even today we're moving in the direction of less personal freedom. each and every day we have things pass like the patriot act, which means that your privacy is no longer protected. there are plans now to regulate and control and monitor and regulate to an -- degree your websites and web pages and for the federal government to come in and take away the privacy of the internet. believe me, the internet is

very, very valuable. if you lose the privacy of internet, you have lost a big hunk of your freedom. that move is on and something you need to look at and pay attention to. with all of the problems we have around the world of perpetual war and spending and debt and inflation and the monetary system, believe me, it's not difficult to solve the problems. all we need are people that believe in the constitution, are energized by the principles of liberty and willing to say that it is not our business to solve all of the problems of the world and get involved in all of these conflicts in the world. we need to make our nation a great nation once again. if we want to influence the rest of the world, we should do that by setting a great standard. great standard of individual liberty, a standard of prosperity and sound money where we mind our own business. when we have that greatness, we won't have to try to force it down the throats of others by bombing and invading those countries. they will want to be like us, we are a great nation and have the

prosperity. i'm encouraged because i have so many young people supporting this cause and there's so much activity and interest, we see this as a real opportunity, this campaign and what's coming up tonight and in the next several months, it's a wonderful opportunity to restate our sound principles about why this country had been great and what we need to restore peace, prosperity and liberty to all of us. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> you've been watching ron paul rock the caucuses. we're going to have more of that live as it unfolds. this is it, the iowa caucuses, maybe the most hyped night in politics. what's a caucus? it is simply a meeting, a chance to change minds and tonight

conservative republicans are going to pull in the winter coats and hop in the car and spend the evening arguing over who they think should be the next leader of the country. we're going to take you live to iowa, the final hours before the caucuses kick off. the race is up in the air, campaigning is going down to the wire and the candidates are out in force. so are cnn correspondents and analysts, we're covering a rock the caucus rally as we saw in we west des moines. three of the candidates are taking part of in that. later this hour we'll look at newt gingrich and his campaign bus. they are going to be rolling into burlington, iowa and dana bash is reporting from west des moines. we'll get insight from james carville. the kacandidates are making the final pitches at the campaign stops across the state. mitt romney, newt gingrich and

rick perry and michele bachmann going after barack obama. >> he was going to get everyone back to work and repair the nation and repair the world. extraordinary promises. but there's a huge gap between the promise and the delivery. >> at the election level, i think i'm the only person who can take on obama's billion dollar campaign and defeat him head to head in debatsz in a decisive way. >> this is about stopping a president of the united states and his administration that is abusing the constitution of this country, that is putting america on a track to bankruptcy. and folks, we are going to take america back. >> i want to bring down the price of a gallon of gas. gasoline was $1.79 a gallon the day barack obama became president. we can get it back to that again because the united states is the number one energy resource rich nation in the world. >> new hampshire is the next stop in the presidential race. and jon huntsman already there.

he campaigns in lebanon, new hampshire this hour. it's actually his second stop of the day. huntsman decided to skip iowa all together and focus his efforts on new hampshire. that primary is a week from today. huntsman talked about his decision to run for office. sfwl i got the same lecture in life. if you want to make it happen, you have to go into politics, where you can make change. not everybody is cut out for that. they are always going to need a fallback. you can always go into politics. >> fresh from his holiday vacation with his family in hawaii, president obama will be speaking in iowa tonight sort of after a day of meetings in d.c., he plans on speaking to iowa supporters as the republican caucus votes come in. a campaign official tells us the president is going to use a new

video technology like skype to chat about his own campaign. candidates are scrambling to lockup the last minute votes. we have less than seven hours before the start of the iowa caucuses. and three of those candidates went looking for young voters. this is the rock the caucus rally in west des moines. dana bash is there with them. you had a chance to talk to it mitt romney's sons. that was interesting, we see a lot of kids and grand kids of the candidates. how important is this young vote, young people taking part? >> reporter: well, it's important because these are people who have never been to caucuses before. many of the people here, just under 800 people just in this high school gym alone. this is something taking place at 25 high schools around the state today. and look, these are incredibly important voters because caucuses -- let's face it, they are scary things, very different from going in and closing the voting booth and saying, yes, who you're going to vote for.

you have to go into a room and listen to people speak and really make an effort. it's a very different kind of experience than what they are going -- these voters are going to experience as they get older in regular elections. these particular young voters, many of them have not even registered. you're seeing people with registration forms and a lot of people saying they are here to listen. ron paul spoke before. this is one the most interesting dynamics of this caucus in general. and he's 76 years old. not the kind of person you would think off the top of your head would appeal to young people. i spent a lot of time here and our producer walking around and talking to young people. we talked to a lot of them that say they are going out for ron paul. why? primarily because of his economic views, he want to reduce the debt and deficit. and also because he is consistent. he hasn't flip-flopped on the issue. very interesting that new voters, people who haven't gone

before and clearly are skeptical of washington and politicians, they like the guy who hasn't changed his position. >> dana, it's almost recommemint of what happened before with barack obama. there were a lot of young people very excited about what he offered there in iowa. do we think it's going to make a difference for ron paul? >> reporter: you know, that is a wild card. they don't nope the answer to that. if you speak to the ron paul advisers that i've been speaking to, they say you never know. look what happened with howard dean in 2004, that is kind of the most famous example on the democratic side. he had all of these young people out, many of them turned out, weren't even from iowa or eligible to vote in the caucuses and it didn't do him any good. they insist they have identified voters, even no voters to gets out to the caucuses to actually put their vote where their mouth is. we'll see but it is absolutely a

wild card because generally what you see are people who have been time and time again older voters, new voters you never really know. you'll appreciate this, a lot of people here said they are required to go for some of their government classes so they want to get an a, they are going to go tonight. >> all right then, and they'll participate, i'm sure. thank you so much. good to see you. all right, we've heard from the candidates and analysts and pundits. who do you think is going to win the iowa caucuses and why? people are weighing in on who they like. >> ron paul. >> reporter: and why? >> because of his ideas and getting the country back on track. >> i committed to rick santorum but after listening to rick perry, it's just tough to know who's going -- who you -- who's going to take you the farthest and get you to where you want to

be. >> if we don't choose a candidate during our caucus that is a viable candidate and goes on to win the nomination, i think we will lose some of our importance. i think we really need to take our role seriously and consider who we want to be our nominee, not just who's popular at the moment. >> what about you? who do you think will come out on top? we want you to post your comments, facebook.com/suzannecnn. live america's choice 2012 coverage of the iowa caucuses begins tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern. with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula improves skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] only from aveeno. crisp, clear, untouched. that's why there's brita, to make the water we drink, taste a little more, perfect. reduce lead and other impurities

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republican candidates are taking aim at the man they hope to defeat in november. president obama and first family return from their vacation in hawaii this morning just in time for the iowa caucuses. well, president obama is going to be keeping track of how his potential challenges are doing tonight, but he's also going to be reaching out to his own supporters in iowa. joining us to talk about the caucuses from the democrats' point of view, democratic strategist james carville. >> good to see you. >> fired up. haven't been able to keep score, this is fun. >> you and i love this stuff. >> the president is coming back and will be in d.c. he has no challengers so he's reaching out to iowa supporters the skype mechanism. what does he need to say to jump start his own campaign and get the enthusiasm going for him? >> not a lot he can do. the big story tonight is the republicans, but we need to keep in mind come november, iowa is a

must-win state for president obama and it's very close, very tight. i think it's kind of smart for him to come in at night to get the democrats energized because they are just watching the republicans, appropriately so, getting all of the publicity because they actually have a contest here. that's the thing to keep in mind. >> in the last go round nobody knew him in iowa, he spent a good year getting folks to know him and in iowa people know him now. what does he need to convey, i'm president, things are going to be good, going to be better if you get a second term. >> he's got to convey that he knows how difficult this job has been. i think he's got to convey he understands what's happened to the middle class around country and he contrasted very well with republicans on that. he's also -- he can't say that he's been a success on the economy but he can surely explain all of things that he's done to try to get it going again and they are going to pursue these kinds of policies that will really change the course and direction of the middle class is taken here over the last ten years.

>> you've been a part of iowa caucuses and spend a lot of time in the ground game there. what are they going through? what are they thinking? >> how nervous are they? >> they are exhausted. cannot convey enough just how tired they are. remember, they don't get to go to disney world when this is over. they've got to go right to new hampshire and they are going to be really tired tomorrow. they are going to leave tonight, most of them will fly out of des moines tonight. that's going to be behind -- for some they'll have the energy of doing well. some didn't do so well. i remember in the 2008, i wasn't part of the campaign but remember vividly when senator clinton had to go to new hampshire and had gotten thoroughly beaten in iowa and had a tremendous comeback there. they are excited and they are going on adrenalin. i was watching ron paul rally, it's fun because gingrich is calling romney a liar and santorum is saying that ron paul is disgusting. we need this to go on because we

need other add jekt tifs. >> works in your favor. >> it does. i hate to say that it's kind of fun politics, people are disgusting and you want it to roll further downhill. >> you're a veteran to all of this stuff -- >> not me. >> we'll see how president obama actually fights off some of these criticisms and these challenges as well. james, thanks you so much for joining us. >> big night tonight. >> we'll be watching. does uncertainty from republican voters actually work in the president's favor? what exactly does he have have to do to win ten months from now? the answer from both sides coming up next. advanced aspiri. it has microparticles so it enters the bloodstream fast and rushes relief to the site of your tough pain. it's proven to relieve pain twice as fast as before. bayer advanced aspirin.

keeping track of the candidates as we approach tonight's iowa caucuses. we're waiting for newt gingrich's live at an event in burlington, supposed to start in a couple of minutes. i'll bring his comments live once it starts. we want to get you up to speed on the top stories of the day. syrian officials are blaming each other for an attack on a gas pipe line. it caused a huge fire near the city at the center of the uprising. elsewhere in syria, a leading opposition group says 18 members of the security forces were kilds in clashes against soldiers who have defected from the syrian army.

for the first time the taliban are signaling they are ready for peace talks without the condition of a u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan. this is significant. a purported spokesman says the taliban have struck a deal to open an office. they want taliban detainees at guantanamo release the as a condition for the talks. it's not clear in the reported spokesman speaks to all parts of the afghan taliban. the embassy responded we support a process in which the taliban renounces violence and accepts the afghan constitution. let's look the l.a. arson spree is over. a part-time sheriff's deputy is the one who actually arrested the suspect, harry burkhart has been charged with one count of arson. more charges are expected.

investigators think he set 52 different fires. the guy who arrested burkhart earns just a dollar per year. here's what he said. >> thank you to the men and women of the l.a. police department doing this full-time, putting their lives on the liner day full-time. i really appreciate everything you guys do. and i look forward to coming back for my next shift with you guys. >> suspect is said to be arraigned tomorrow morning. well, condolences are pouring in online for park ranger margaret anderson, mother of two. she was gunned down in mount rainier national park on new year's day. an intense search for her shooter ended when his body was found in a river. >> reporter: i'm standing at the entrance to mount rainier national park. this is where benjamin barnes arrived on sunday, already a wanted man and armed to the teeth.

police were looking for him after he allegedly shot up a party on new year's eve and got into an argument with people he was spending the night with, came back and shot and injured four people. when barnes arrived here on sunday, police said he had automatic weapons with him and body armor and survival gear. he didn't get too far into the park, running into a checkpoint that park rangers maintain to make sure people have the proper equipment and snow tires and chains on the tires if they need to navigate around the park during the wintertime. he blew through that checkpoint. police said then as rangers gave chase, he got out of the car and shot killing ranger margaret anderson and kept up a running gun battle with police over the next 90 minutes. then they say barnes fled into these thick woods, woods that as you just step off the road, you can see are almost impassable, very, very deep woods. one of the reasons that people come into this park, he didn't get very far though. police on monday found his body in a river bed.

there are no signs that he had been shot, committed suicide. it appeared this man, an army veteran could not spend the night in the elements. police said despite the fact they thought they were looking for a survivalist, barnes had very little clothing with him. they said when they found him he was only wearing a t-shirt and pair of jeans and one tennis shoe. it was a very scary event at this park and park remains closed as people mourn the loss of ranger anderson. they are giving her credit for stopping potentially a much worse situation. authorities said that as barnes was traveling in the park he was coming in the most populated area. if ranger anderson hadn't stopped him, a much worse tragedy could have taken place. pat rick ottman, cnn.

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just hours before the voting begins, we want to look at how the race is shaping up. joining us to talk about that, republican consultant and cnn contributor and donna brazil. you both look colorful. alex, let's start with you, you worked for mitt romney in 2008. what do you think he's thinking today as we count down the hours? >> this is a tense time. he's out there from the reports we're seeing, he's getting big crowds. and he's probably thinking that, gee, i hope these folks understand that my message that i've got the best shot at defeating barack obama and that pulling country back from an economic precipice, he wants

them to think about electability. has he gotten that message through today. >> you have been working really hard day and night. i know it's getting tiresome down to the wire here. donna, the latest polls are still showing that 41% of iowa republicans planning to attend caucuses tonight could still change their minds. does that work in your favor for the democrats? >> let me just explain what that means. when the caucus gathers together, there will be a surrogate from all of the campaigns and they will make the case for their respective candidate. if they are convinced and persuasive enough, they will be able to perhaps draw support from some of the candidates that may not have a good surrogate there to make his or her case. so there's no question that tonight mitt romney will do very, very well. he's been in the state for over five years, he's organized very well. he has money to compete. he has spent money on television

ads, hurting his republican opponents. i feel confident tonight that not only barack obama will do well because we have eight states -- eight offices open across the state, democrats will caucus but the real show tonight is what the republicans will do in terms of coalescing around an anti-romney figure. >> donna, who do you suppose president obama wants to run against? who would be the person they would like to see the winner out of tonight? >> you know, i think the president is ready for any of his opponents but mitt romney is the odds on favorite to win the nomination. mitt romney will have to of course unify the republican party and we're ready to run against mitt romney who ran for governor in 19 -- back in 1990s and we're ready to run against mitt romney in 2008 and now in 2012. three different romneys and we're ready for all three. >> i think president obama will do well since he has a saddam

hussein election tonight, he's the only one on ball ot. but you can tell who they are concerned about running against because that's who they've been attacking. they've already been attacking mitt romney. you wouldn't do that to a guy you didn't have concerns about. spent more than $26 million the past year saying negative things about president obama. there's been millions of ads against obama but we're ready for the fight. the showdown is here with the republicans and let's see which candidate will come out of here along with mitt romney. >> you look way too friendly here for two foes. >> it's too early to fight, alex. >> donna is wrong about everything but she's a good person. >> alex has never said anything i agree with but i like him personally. >> we like to see people getting along here but disagree.

alex, i want to bring this point up. we've seen romney's sons and seen a new more relaxed kind of guy, no longer has the permanent tan, someone eye juans can rerelate to. how different is that this time around? >> it's been very important for him. in politics we have a thing called a law of the car keys. before i give you my car keys to take me somewhere, what do i want to know? where do you promise to take me, policy or plans, 59 point economic strategy? but i want to know character. can i trust you to take me there? who are you? and ann romney, the family are so important to him. that's where his values come from. if you want to know what mitt romney would do in a crisis, look at the way he responded when ann romney was sick. look at the way he cares about his family. i think who he is is as important as what he believes. >> great surrogates for the candidate.

>> donna, real quick. we know iowa was a place we spent a lot of time in. this is where barack obama really got -- people got to know him in iowa. now as president, what does he need to let the iowa voters know about him this go around? >> as you know, tonight he will be calling into the various precinct caucuses and talk with supporters andry minds them he made a commitment to them in 2008 to get this economy moving again, to end the war in iraq, to pass a health care bill. he will remind voters in this state that he has delivered on many important promises and continue to stand and fight for middle class and help move this economy along. >> donna, alex, good to see you both and you're still getting along there after many hours. we'll see how it goes tomorrow. >> we'll see what happens at midnight. >> night the young. >> night is young. >> good to see you both. everybody is talking about the attack ads, the polls, but

where do the candidates really stand on the issues that matter? we're going to take a hard look at how the white house hopefuls plan to get tough with iran. the street a script and had them read it. no, sorry, i can't help you with that. i'm not authorized to access that transaction. that's not in our policy. i will transfer you now. my supervisor is currently not available. would you like to hold ? that department is currently closed. have i helped you with everything you needed ? if your bank doesn't give you knowledgeable customer service 24/7, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. [ female announcer ] improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula improves skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] only from aveeno.

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politics for a minute. all this week we're taking a hard look on where the white house will stand on where it counts. we're talking about iran, a country that weighs heavy on every president's mind. how do the candidates plan to get tough with iran? well, no one differs more than the field than ron paul. he wants to shut down u.s. military bases abroad and starkly opposed to military intervention with iran. newt gingrich is on the other end of the spectrum. he says covert operations and assassination missions against iran nuclear scientists are all viable options. michele bachmann says it's about protecting our ally israel and criticized president obama for not getting tougher with iran. rick perry agrees, he says we're bond to do whatever is necessary to keep iran from getting a nuclear weapon. rick santorum says we can't take

the military option off the table. jon huntsman is not opposed to using force to keep a nuclear weapon out of the hands of the iranians. mitt romney, favors sanctions but if push comes to shove, he too says military action is an option a president would have to consider. tomorrow we'll take a hard look on where the candidates stand on another hot button issue. we're talking about social security and entitlement reform tomorrow 11:00 a.m. eastern in the cnn newsroom. well, three small states could have a huge impact on which candidate faces president obama next november. we're looking at how the primary process gets started and what's at stake.

we're watching all things live, events out of iowa. newt gingrich, we're taking a look at an event in burlington, let's list ton what he has to say. >> we had a wonderful life, making movies and writing books and really having a good time. i was almost learning how to golf. we have two grandchildren, maggie who's 12 and robert who's 10. great fun hanging out with them. and yet you looked at the mess we're in and you ask yourself a fun little question, this election is not just a referendum on obama. this is election is an effort to find somebody and to find a program that can get america back on the right track. now, that is a dramatically

bigger question than politics as usual. and one of the reasons i've talked so much about the negative campaigning is it totally clutters the ability of the american people to have an adult conversation about solutions. i mean, we are in real trouble. if this was just a game. if this was a senior class president, that would be one thing. but this isn't a game. this is the presidency of the most important country in the world at a time when the whole planet is shaking. you have the iranians trying to get nuclear weapons and practicing closing the states f straits of hormuz, they have one out of every six barrels of oil go through them. if they succeed in closing the straits, you have a repression in the entire modern world. you have the rise of china, who

are now cheerfully announcing they are going to go to the moon, probably faster than nasa can hold bureaucratic meetings to try to figure out how to get off the planet again. you have a $2 trillion deficit which has a political class in both parties which is getting to look more and more like greece, more like the italian parliament in a bad year. your political leadership in the house and senate and presidency struggle to pass a two-month extension of a bill and go home triumphantly, you have a sense of how totally out of sink. sync these are. it's almost like a family that's so dysfunctional we need somebody to intervene. and that's really where we are. this is not a conversation the news media knows how to carry and not a conversation our political culture knows how to carry. but it's where we are.

and if you go to newt.org, you'll see lots and lots of proposals -- i'm dealing with the fact that the judges are too strong so we have a 54-page paper that outlines historically starting with the founding fathers, the constitution, the federalist papers, jefferson, madison, jackson, lincoln, fdr. that's not what politicians normally do. but in times of serious problems, that's exactly what leaders do. remember, the federalist papers which is a pretty thick book, was a campaign brochure. it was written for the purpose of convincing the american people to ratify the constitution. because they were serious about their country. and this year i think this election for us to succeed as a people, this has to be not just the most important election of your lifetime, it has to be the

most serious election of your lifetime. and that requires squall tatively a different approach to the campaign. how many of you are fed up with the negative ads and negative mailings? [ applause ] i would simply ask you to go to the caucus tonight and say to your friends and neighbors, that iowa has a remarkable opportunity to say no to every candidate who's been running negative ads. and if you were to do that, you would be able to change the entire culture of campaigning in america. as long as the consultants believe that negative attack ads work no matter how dishonest and as long as they think they can raise money for millionaires to pay for millions of dollars of attack ads, we're going to remain sick. this is a serious problem.

and so i raise it with you because what we really have to have is a different conversation. how are we going to create jobs and economic growth? how are we going to get back to a balanced budget? how are we going to replace bureaucracies that don't work? what threatens america and how do we defend against it? what are the values we want to pass on to our children and grandchildren? what does it mean to be an american? these are real -- this is what this campaign should be about. these are big ideas. the reason i tell people that if i do become your nominee, i will challenge president obama to seven three-hour debates in the lincoln douglas tradition with a time keeper but no moderator, snts for a gimmick. it's because i believe the gap in values and ideas and information between the radicalism and the performance of the president and his team and where most americans are is so big that he owes us an

opportunity to have a conversation. he doesn't owe me, this isn't about cheap candidacy. this is about a historic moment of decision. who are we and what are we trying to accomplish? now, if you go and look at my tax and economic job plan, which the wall street journal has said is by far the strongest and most jobs oriented plan of any candidate, what you'll really see, i have a very old fashioned model, the same model ronald reagan had. the reason is simple, i helped develop it. in the 1970s, i worked with jude with a nis ki and larry kud low and jack kemp and developed a concept called supply side economics. it says if you incentivize people to create more production to build more factories to prevent more new ideas, you'll create wealth and mop up

production -- agriculture is the perfect example. if you look at american productivity over the last 100 years on the farm, it's -- going back 150 years, it's astonishing how much more productive we are. in a sense that's the whole supply side model. what i propose is the same old thing. here's what it comes down to and the core of difference with barack obama. i believe we should incentivize the work ethic and innovation and entrepreneurship and incentivize saving and investing. there's a practical reason. i believe a world in which people who get up and go to work is a better world. and create a better job, a better world. where people are constantly inventing things, a better world. yesterday morning we were at the building -- i don't know if any of you have been there in

independence. it's a collection of tractors and other far i am plimts going back to the early 19th century. and you see all -- for example, a steam powered tractor and see all of the companies that don't exist that once upon a time had an idea. i went to the museum of vermere, starts with three guys and one simple idea to modestly improve one piece of equipment it has grown to a worldwide company. but that's been the history of america. so you either have a system where you say i want to encourage people to do this or you've a system where you think like is static and think no, i need to take away from everybody successful to give to everybody who has failed.

after all we can't -- we can't bake any bigger pies and can't bake -- >> newt gingrich, you've been listening and watching him before the important night of the iowa caucuses tonight on cnn live, america's choice 2012 coverage of the iowa caucuses beginning tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern. this is $100,000. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defend against digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. hit me!

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people are responding to our talk back segment, who do you think is going to win the iowa caucuses and why? i think it will be romney and i think he will put chris christie as his vp. i don't think obama will win unless he makes hillary clinton his vp. that would be an incredible election to watch. dominic writes, ron paul because the younger generations are hungry for answers and the courage to speak the truth and

older generations are hungry for traditional values. rick santorum appears to be the flavor of the day. at the end of the process, obama will take it. finally arthur says, the 1%. keep the conversation going. cnn newsroom with randi kaye starts in just one minute. for arthritis pain, most think again. and take aleve. it's the one doctors recommend most for arthritis pain... two pills can last all day. ♪ because for every two pounds you lose through diet and exercise, alli can help you lose one more by blocking some of the fat you eat. let's fight fat with alli. ♪